North Carolina skeletal remains identified as 15-year-old Maryland girl

Law enforcement officials have identified skeletal remains discovered in North Carolina in 1977 as Cindy Marcell Blizzard, a 15-year-old girl who had run away from her home in Monkton, Maryland, in the spring of 1977.

The remains were found on December 29, 1977, in a wooded area near a tire manufacturing plant in Wilson, North Carolina. At the time of discovery, a medical examiner estimated the remains belonged to a female between the ages of 16 and 23. While the cause of death was listed as undetermined, investigators treated the case as a potential homicide due to the circumstances of the recovery.

Decades of forensic efforts, including dental record comparisons and DNA testing in 2010, failed to produce a match. However, a recent investigation led by special investigator Andy Murr utilized advanced DNA technology and forensic tools unavailable in the 1970s. By creating a DNA profile from a bone sample, investigators were able to identify Blizzard through her relatives. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation stated that the death remains unsolved and they are continuing to look for answers.